人教版（新课程标准）高中英语必修2 Unit 1 Cultural relics 同步练习2

    Yosemite is a national park in California. It is very beautiful and big. The park includes more than 760,000 acres (英亩) in the California Mountains. Most of the park is wild (荒凉的).

    The part of Yosemite that everyone likes is Yosemite Valley. It is a small valley that is 7 miles long and less than 1 mile wide. It has tall rock walls and streams that flow down in waterfalls. More than two million visitors come to the valley each year.

    It's said that the number of visitors is more than the land can hold. The valley has 4,500 camping places. It has a hotel that can hold 4,000 families. This is still not enough to serve all of the visitors. The valley has grown so big that it has a lot of traffic.

    A worker says the park is trying to keep the beauty of the park and let everyone visit. Some areas have been rounded up (圈起来) to keep people away and planted with seeds to try to keep them beautiful.

    A former worker thinks Yosemite should get more money to take better care of the park. He would also like to teach people what the park service is trying to do.

    Some people are trying to save Yosemite Valley. A plan has been made to remove some buildings. There will be fewer cars allowed inside the park. More buses will help get people around.

    No matter where you travel in Asia, you'll find yourself faced with a new culture. You can start your Asian exploration (探索) by visiting some of these attractive cities first.

    Beijing, China

    Beijing is the second largest city in China and serves as the capital. The city is so old, in fact, that almost every building has some sort of cultural or historic features — no matter how small. Getting around the city you'll find yourself faced with amazing temples (寺庙), the largest palaces in the world, and many works of art that leave you breathless.

    Siem Reap, Cambodia(柬埔寨)

    Siem Reap is the capital city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. Siem Reap has a lot of French and Chinese­style architecture. In the city, there are traditional dance performances, silk farms, fishing villages and a bird sanctuary (保护区) near the Tonle Sap Lake. Siem Reap today, being a popular tourist attraction, has a large number of hotels and restaurants.

    Kathmandu, Nepal(尼泊尔)

    Situated in the heart of the Himalayans, Kathmandu, the largest city and capital of Nepal, is considered to be one of the most outstanding cities in the world today. The shopping districts are world famous and the hotels in Kathmandu are among the most comfortable in the world.

    Kyoto, Japan

    The city of Kyoto served as the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868. No longer the capital, it is known for being the seventh largest city in Japan. Kyoto was destroyed throughout history by fires and war. But now the city is home to more than 1.4 million people, and it presents a modern face to the rest of the world.

    Every city throughout Asia has a story of its own. It's up to you to explore them all and find out exactly what each one has to offer. Enjoy!

    The people who built Stonehenge in southern England thousands of years ago had wild parties, eating barbecued pigs and breaking pottery. This is according to recent work by archaeologists — history experts who investigate (调查) how human beings lived in the past.

    Archaeologists digging near Stonehenge last year discovered the remains of a large prehistoric village where they think the builders of the mysterious stone circle used to live.

    The village is about 4,600 years old, the same age as Stonehenge and as old as the pyramids in Egypt. It is less than two miles from the famous ancient landmark and lies inside a massive man­made circular dirt wall, or "henge", known as the Durrington Walls.

    Remains found at the site included jewellery, stone arrowheads, tools made of deer antlers, wooden spears and huge amounts of animal bones and broken pottery. "These finds suggest Stone Age people went to the village at special times of the year to feast and party", says Mike Parker Pearson from Sheffield University in England.

    He said many of the pig bones they found had been thrown away half-­eaten. He also said the partygoers appeared to have shot some of the farm pigs with arrows, possibly as a kind of sport before barbecuing them.

    An ancient road which led from the village to the River Avon was also found. Here, the experts think, people came after their parties to throw dead relatives in the water so the bodies would be washed downstream to Stonehenge.

    Parker Pearson believes Stonehenge was like a cemetery where ancient Britons buried the dead and remembered their ancestors. "The theory is that Stonehenge is a kind of spirit home to the ancestors."

    The recent discovery of the village within the Durrington Walls shows that Stonehenge didn't stand alone but was part of a much bigger religious site, according to Parker Pearson.

    People still come to worship and celebrate at Stonehenge today. They meet there when the sun sets on the shortest day of winter and when it rises on the longest day of summer. But the days of barbecuing whole pigs there and throwing family members into the river are a thing of the past.